New security system to provide protection at shopping malls
Murder of youth terrifies residents
KUWAIT: The recent murder that took place at Marina Mall in Salmiya, where a 24year-old Kuwaiti man was stabbed to death signifies increasing violence in the country. The incident has left people terrified of going to malls on weekends. The Ministry of Interior held a meeting yesterday and agreed to establish a security system that will provide complete protection at shopping malls in all governorates. The system will be designed to provide better surveillance and prevent crimes at the malls. This will be enforced in cooperation with security departments at all governorates and the security teams at the malls.
“The ministry is now discussing the security systems in the malls. We agreed that the number of surveillance cameras should be increased and alarms and metal detectors should be installed at mall entrances and maintained regularly,” Maj Raed Buslaib told the Kuwait Times. Recently, a local Arabic daily published a terrifying statistic about crime rates in Kuwait. Head of the Supreme Judicial Council Faisal Al-Mershed made the statistics official to Al-Qabas daily where he warned that crime cases reached 222,000 in 2012 with an average of 3,000 cases a day - which was up by 11 percent compared to 2011 which saw 198,000 cases. “Unfortunately, crimes have increased while tolerance levels have dropped within members of the same family” he said.
Psychotherapist Dr Kazen Abal has a different perspective on the elements leading to the increase in violence. “The first element is the weak role of the family in their children’s awareness and upbringing. Children who grow up in unstable families, especially when their parents are separated, reflect their home’s negative attitude outside. The father’s role in such families is weak as he is mostly busy with work. Studies have also proven that a father’s influence on his kids is greater than the mother’s,” he explained.
The second element he takes into consideration is school. “I think that the role of a school may be even more important than family. The schools take care of the children from their early childhood till they graduate from high school. Schools have to take extra initiatives to make the children aware and guide them. This system is applied in Europe and the United States. Our educational system lacks such awareness programs and only focuses on teaching the curriculum and doesn’t focus on the students’ attitude and behavior,” stressed Dr Abal. NGOs also play an important role in increasing violence in our community. “The NGOs should provide teenagers with enough opportunities to learn the culture and practice sports and entertainment. Their role is to complement the role of the family and school in the child’s life who has been deprived of either or both. Media is an important platform to spread awareness of laws and regulations,” he pointed out.
Dr Abal mostly blamed the institutions executing the laws. “Laws are applied randomly. The killers at Marina Mall knew that they have someone to get them out of prison. I think that such weak laws have encouraged the youngsters to commit the crime. This wasn’t the first time a crime has been committed openly in a shopping mall. A doctor was murdered in a similar fashion earlier this year in at another mall,” said Dr Abal.
Delivering the verdict on the guilty should happen fast. “The punishment should be announced within a week or two as it will serve as a lesson for others and make people think a hundred times before committing such crimes. I think the execution should take place in public like a yard or someplace where youngsters and the public in general will be able to witness it happen and this will go a long way in ensuring that such crimes aren’t committed,” he concluded.